Blog Post 14_2009103_Comment of QuentinCleavesPost

GoAnimate.com is a free online animation tool that lets you create and share animations, eMessages and slideshows with your friends and other Go Animate users. Go Animate is a flexible service that provides easy-to-use tools, templates ,and elements to quickly create animated movies with both text-based and audio dialogues. At this time, they offer five templates: Star Trek, Street Fighter, Go Animate, Akon, and Saturday Morning TV. You can, however, import your own images and sounds. Included in these templates are characters, dialogue bubbles, backgrounds, props & costumes, music/sounds, and special effects. Cost is always a concern for educators and their institutions, as well as for learners. Go Animate would be a great asset to the classroom. This tool can be useful for the creation of dialogue in projects. The student can collaborate with others to create these dialogues which helps promote team building. Using this tool is more interesting to the student and provides opportunity for increased engagement among the students. As an art teacher, it would be enlightening to see how creative the students can be in both the animation and the language aspects of cartoon making. Since Go Animate allows for easy sharing and viewing of others productions, it will be easy for students to offer online critiquing.


Go Animate. (2009). Anyone can animate. Retrieved from http://goanimate.com

POSTED BY Q AT 6:49 PM
1 COMMENTS:

brborders said...
This looks like a great program that you found. I can see my students in a group setting using this to create their own story. I like the part where they can add the music and sound. The fact that it is free is the best part for students and educators.

OCTOBER 18, 2009 8:35 PM

Blog Post 13_2009103_WebMedia_RicciAdamsMusicTheory

Blog Post 12_2009103_EduTools_PulseStompOdyssey

Pulse a Stomp Odyssey

http://www.pulsethemovie.com/

If you want to skip the introduction, just hit . If you click on Sound Science it will take to a page where you can hear and learn about sound. You will hear the drum sounds and see the type of drums they use in Stomp. It will also give you a history on the instrument. You will see how when you hit the drums the atoms cause a chain reaction and the collision is what creates the sound. You can also read information about the speed of sound. You can play around with the sound waves with the 2 different tones provided.

The Beat Chaser is a fun game where you have to match the beat and tempo to the objects that are there. It is similar to the game “Bop It”. You can play underwater or on the rooftop and various places depending on the level. It gives you immediate feedback on how accurately you played the rhythm.

The Groove Machine is fun for students of all age groups. I tried this with one of my classes after they took a note name test on the computer. I directed them to the Stomp Odyssey website and let them explore and play on the Groove Machine. It was difficult going back to our class because they wanted to create and explore some more. The students loved creating on the groove machine because it was user friendly. All you have to do is drag and drop the sound on the different tracks. You can select performers as your rhythm, or instruments or extra beats where there are extra sounds of guitars or drum set, etc. You can set a base rhythm with a voice or instrument. You can sample the sounds before you drag them down or you can just randomly select the sounds and see what sounds you create. When you are done creating you can Email your Groove Machine to your friends.

Blog Post 11_2009103_EduTools_EasyTestMaker

Easy Test Maker (free) http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx

With this program you can make multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching, short answer, and true/false tests. It even has a built in spell check function. The Easy Test Maker is free but you will need to pay for any upgrades. I like the fact that you can add multiple types of test questions on one page. In this example you can see that I used fill in the blank, multiple choice, true/false, short answers, and matching.

To get started you will need to register first. Then you can begin by clicking on the type of questions you want to form. Example 1 shows all types of questions on one page.

You can preview and print the test and answers. If you want to insert questions in the middle of two questions all you have to do is insert new before or after a question. You can move a question up or down depending what order you want them on the test.

You can edit a question or delete the questions fairly easily. The students can also look at the Word Bank to see possible answers to the questions. The Word Bank is a good way to help students recall the information and deduce possible solutions.

The only way you can download this on to your computer is if you upgrade. Otherwise the test will be saved online. The nice thing about it is you can print out the test and answer sheet. Having the answer sheet can make grading easier especially if someone else is doing the grading. If you decide to upgrade you will be able to generate and print alternated version of the test. This will automatically up the question and answers in random order. If you want to purchase the upgrade, it will cost $14.95 to upgrade for a year and if you upgrade for two years it would only cost $25.95.

Blog Post 10_2009103_EduTools_ClassTools

Classtools.net is a great tool for learners to learn material in a fun and interactive way. The site is: http://classtools.net/ and it has seventeen templates to choose from. I like the game generator the best. You create the content for the games and the same content can be utilized in other different games. This is a great activity especially when you have different types of learners. I know my son would love the games that shoot or has cannon balls firing at objects. The activities were fun and engaging I wanted to keep going to see if I could hit all the targets. I could definitely use this in my class, especially if I want my students to learn definitions or certain musical facts.

Another tool I like was the Random Name Picker too. I tend to call on the same students to answer a question during class. This way when you type in their names in the program, the Random Name Picker will choose the students for you. Instead of inputing names, you can input word and have a student define the word. You can be creative when using this tool.

There are other mapping tools you can use in the classroom such as the Venn Diagram, Fishbone Diagram and others. There are some templates that all you need to do is type your content information. The students can see visually how the content connects with one another like some of the diagrams. There is a built in timer called countdown timer, so if you are playing a game the students know how much time they have to answer a question.

Another tool, Lights out, is good for scavenger hunts.

There is a good visual graph called Burger where you can show students how to write essays. For example the top bun is the introduction the bottom is the conclusion and the meat in the burger is the main content. You can add the lettuce, cheese, and tomato for supporting details or a different section. If I wanted to adapt this program to illustrate the parts of a musical composition, the top bun could represent the introduction, the burger could represent the main subject, and the cheese could represent the transition to a different section of the music. The tomato or lettuce could represent modulation to a different key. By adding another patty of meat you represent the recapitulation. The bottom bun could represent the coda. You could have a very interesting sandwich when you relate it to music.

The only problem I saw in this particular tool is I wasn’t able to add more patties to illustrate the complexities in music. But I can use this for the basic concept in music.

There is a list of the templates to choose from: Game Generator, CannonBall fun, Random Name Picker, Countdown timer, Post-it, Dustbin, Target, Fishbone, Burger, Timeline, Living Graph, Venn, Jigsaw, Diamond, Priority chart, Lights Out, Source Analyzer, Learning Cycle.